For the first time in 16 days, the Washington Capitals won a hockey game.
Granted this was only their third outing over that span due to Jonas and the All Star Break, and for periods of this game they looked rather out of sync against a speedy and determined New York Islanders team.
An Alexander Ovechkin all world one timer with 2:40 to go off of a gorgeous Nicklas Backstrom feed was the difference in a very fast and entertaining hockey game. Add in some super goaltending by Braden Holtby (24 saves) and the Islanders surely are leaving town with the Capitals remaining firmly in their heads.
New York gave everything they had in this one to try and finally beat the Capitals, and they couldn’t do it; even with Washington missing Marcus Johansson, Jay Beagle, and Brooks Orpik. The Islanders are without Johnny Boychuk, but the Caps had more key guys out of the lineup.
Shots on goal were 26-23 for New York and attempts were more lopsided, at 71-41, but the Caps blocked 33 shots. That’s dedication!
Scoring chances were 20-14 for the Islanders, courtesy of hockeystats.ca, but have I said this yet? The Islanders still could not beat the Caps.
Andre Burakovsky continued his torrid play scoring a late second period goal that gave Washington a 2-1 lead heading into the third period. That goal was set up by a great defensive steal by Dmitry Orlov. #9 then went the other way and had a nice give and go with Jason Chimera. Chimmer adeptly threw the puck on a sliding Halak and the biscuit ricocheted off of #41 and sat near the goal line. Young Burra, who alertly hit the brakes and came back to the front of the net, tapped it home like a one foot putt, Jordan Spieth style. Burakovsky now has nine goals on the season and he is really playing well.
Washington’s first tally came after the Islanders had seized an early lead on a rebound goal by Mikhail Grabovski. The Islanders got greedy in the offensive zone and that allowed Backstrom (two assists) to go in on a two on one with Ovechkin. When the Islanders other defender got back in position to cut off the Gr8, Nicky patiently waited for a trailing T.J. Oshie (1 goal, 1 assist) and #77 one timed it home. It was a key goal and Grabovski was the New York forward who floated back and failed to properly pick up Oshie.
The Caps were heavily outplayed in period one, but in the middle stanza they carried the scoring chances, 4-2, and looked poised to win heading into the final 20 minutes. The Islanders, however, had other ideas and really played hard to tie it up by winning loose puck battle after loose puck battle. It was not one of Washington’s better third frames, but they woke up late and took advantage of their chances. Ovechkin was stopped on a two on one just a shift prior to his super game winning shot.
Then Holtby and the Caps shot blocking crew held the fort over the last two minutes when they were shorthanded due to an iffy delay of game call on John Carlson.
Like Florida has had the Caps number this year the last two times they’ve played, Washington clearly has the Islanders, to steal from the great Mick Jagger, under their thumbs. New York brought their “A” game on Thursday while the Capitals are still trying to get back into their rhythm, and dare I say it…
The Islanders still could not beat the Caps!
You can thank Ovechkin and the Holtbeast for rising to the occasion to help the Capitals break their two game slide. Those two players aren’t the co-MVP’s of this team for nothing.
Washington is now 36-9-4 for 76 points and they lead everyone else in the league by a million points, or something like that.
Oh, and one more thing, the Islanders still can’t beat the Capitals!
Notes: The Caps actual standings leads are as follows: Metropolitan division by 15 points over the Rangers, Eastern Conference by nine points over Florida, and four points over Chicago for the Presidents’ Trophy (pending their game against the Coyotes). Washington has two games in hand on both the Rags and the Cats. They have five on the Blackhawks prior to completion of their Thursday night game against Arizona…Ovechkin’s goal was his 29th of the season and he had 10 shot attempts, including five on net. The Gr8 was rusty early, but got it going late in the 3rd period…the Caps lost the faceoff battle, 27-24. There weren’t a lot of whistles in this fast paced game…both teams were 0 for 2 on the power play…Coach Barry Trotz did a great job of spreading the ice time around, not one Capitals player logged more than 24 minutes. That’s huge when you are in a stretch of three games in four days…the Caps will face the New Jersey Devils at the Rock on Saturday at 1 pm before returning home on Super Bowl Sunday to face the despised Flyers at noon at the VC.
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